Lions In The Shade

I’m back again. We had a good time visiting Topeka this past weekend. #7 must feel like her house is a hotel with a revolving door at this point. You know I can’t pass up an oportunity to visit the zoo and this trip was no exception. However it was a little more fun than usual as D was also pointing the lens at our furry and feathery friends; and #5 had the day off so she was able to go along!

It was hot and humid and the weather was just yucky; many of the animals were being smarter than us humans and taking long naps in the shade. The lions were taking full advantage of all the shade trees in and around their enclosure to help them keep cool. I’m not sure why, but for some reason, the male lion was doing something I’ve never seen a lion do before. As he slept very close to his large viewing window he was sucking on his tail; just like a child sucking on his thumb.

I wondered if he was just very hot and that is how he soothed himself to sleep; or was he stressed about something? I have no idea but maybe someone out there can fill me in.

 

A River, Trees, Shotgun Shells, And A Pizza Place

This past Sunday was a pretty quiet day around here; just not much going on at all. It was nice.

Late in the morning I decided to take the camera down by the river and venture along the hiking trail. I managed to talk D into going along; he is using my “old” XTi and I convinced him it would be good practice for him.

The trail(s) were pretty grown over but we made our way along the few clear paths and back into the trees. At first I didn’t think we were going to see any critters at all but then they started to appear. The fish were jumping in the river, the turtles were sunning on the logs, the lizards were wiggling alongside the path, and the deer were napping in the shade.

We never did get a good shot of the deer but we saw 4 of them. Each time we’d get close they would spot us long before we spotted them and off they’d go. We’d get a glimpse of their tails as they ran the other way and see the “glow” of thier eyes when they’d turn to look back.

So we mostly turned our lenses towards the trees; those standing tall and the one that had fallen into the river.

When we finally came to a point where the trail was too over grown to go any further we back tracked a while and headed out of the trees towards the shooting range. There was no one there and we used the range for our own kind of shooting practice.

After the long hike down the road and back to where we had left the car we drove towards the dam just for fun. We took a few shots of the dam and the water falling over it; even if it is just a small little dam that water still makes a lot of noise!

The golfers were out and driving their carts across the dam heading to the course so we decided it was time to get out of the way. I’m sure we looked awfully funny heading into the pizza place for a late lunch all wind-blown and dirty with cameras hanging around our necks. The waiter even teased that we were there to take pictures of him to autograph; for when he becomes famous.

And yes; we were seen chimping our shots while waiting for lunch to get to the table.

As L would say…

“good times… good times”.

What I See From My Back Door – A Challenge From C

A couple of weeks ago Cecilia, over at The Kitchen’s Garden, posted a challenge.  [yes; I'm a bit behind on this. who's surprised?]  She wanted to know what we see from our back porch or back doorstep. C lives on a beautiful farm and when she looks out from her back porch she sees a garden, an orchard, fields and barns, and even Queenie her gentle old cow.

Hummm. Look out my back door and you see the grill, a table and chairs, and the wall of the neighbors garage. My  house is kind of odd-shaped and the back door and kitchen door both open onto a little patio that is closed in by the house walls on three sides. To look into the back yard you must cross the patio and go around the corner.

I didn’t think a shot of the neighbor’s garage was very exciting so I put a little twist on C’s challenge and took a couple of detail shot of what was outside my back door the other day.

Don’t you just love it when the weather allows you to cook dinner outside?

To Have Faith Is To Have Wings

“The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.”

~J.M. Barrie, The Little White Bird

Tree Sparrow On Bird Feeder

“I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.”

~J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

 

Picture Of The Week – Planet Topeka

A little over a year ago I had the opportunity to climb to the top of one of the downtown office buildings in Topeka, Kansas. I went up there with #7 and we walked all over the roof in the hot sun taking photos of the city.

I tried to stitch a few of those together to create a wide panoramic image; it could have gone better. I’ll need to try that again someday.

Not long after that I tried a little Photoshop fun called “Small Planets”. I took an old shot of a wheat field and created Planet Kansas; it kind of needed a little something but was fun to do.

For some reason today I felt like playing with that small planet idea again. Maybe it was because I’m a bit too sun burned to do much of anything other than sit in front of the fan and whine a little.

I pulled up one of the old shots taken from the roof top last spring, opened up Photoshop CS2 and had some fun.

Here’s what downtown Topeka might look like from space if it were its own small planet.

Planet Topeka

So who else is having fun playing with their images this week? Please share your creations with a link in the comments!